Gorenji Mokronog: Archaeologica l Site Location Gorenji Mokronog Time of origin from 6th or 7th centu ri es Time of restoration 1999 Chief Conservator Uroš Bavec and assistants Dr. Andrej Pleterski and Tomaž Golob Visits Access from the village of Trebelno or from Mokronog, or along a some­ what longer route from ~marješke Toplice through Male Strmice and Velike Strmice. There are few places in Slovenia as vividly rooted in the oral tradi­ tion as Gorenji Mokronog in the central Dolenjska region. Rather than describing it as an archaeological site, it would be better to de­ note it with the expression "mythicallandscape", since archaeologica! sites, sacred monuments, written sources and oral traditions are indi­ visibly connected, rendering the landscape a touch of olden times.' The landscape can be divided into three parts that are worthy of atten­ tion: the so-called Vrajk with a cemetery from !ate Antiquity, the area of the former castle Gorenji Mokronog as a settlement and the only stil! discernible part, and the sacred area with an ossarium and the church of St. Peter. Vrajk or Vrajski Breg is a dialect form of the geniti ve case of the Slovene phrase 'v raju' ('in paradise'). The old word "paradise", i.e. Christian Heaven, indicated for the pagans a country where the souls of the righteous resided. The antiques excavator, Jernej Pečnik , who was active in this area in the last third of the 19th century, recorded the discovery of "strange graves built up of stone slabs and very simi­ lar to Roman graves" in the "Perko estate". Oral tradition indicated the existence of an early Christian timber church located in the vicin­ ity. A visit to the near-by sand quarry where human bones have been discovered for years, incited the Institute for the Protection of the Natural and Cultural Heritage of Novo Mesto to make some tria! pits in 1996. The result was the discovery of the south-eastern border of a damaged skeleton burial-ground from !ate Antiquity with sixteen pre­ served graves, two partly preserved ones and two completely de­ stroyed ones. Traces of twelve holes for props were discovered in the plain above the burial-ground, which indicated the existence of a small circular wooden building. The notion of an early Christian wooden church expressed in oral traditions seemed very probable. Unique and decayed artefacts contained in the graves typical of the turn of the 6th or beginning of the 7th century, indicated a self­ sufficient and isolated community. That was the period when the pa­ gan, Slavonic-speaking inhabitants of Carinthia (i.e. the historic pre­ decessor of Slovenia) already enthroned their first dukes. The author­ ity of the Byzantines as heirs of the centuries-old Roman Em pire was Acknowledgement is due to Franc Hočevar , sexton and village chronicler, who kind ly related the oral tradition to the author. For a more detailed analysis as to the meaning of the data see Bavec 1999, pp. 231-245 . ...,. Chapel of St. Michael: "Between 1335 and 1372, the Lord s of Scharfenberg of the near-by Gorenji Mokronog castle had the vault embellished with cross ribs ." 57 Cultural Routes 2000 Guide to Monuments contracted to the province of Liburnia Tarsaticensis (present-day Istria with the Quarnero islands in Croatia, and perhaps even a part of the Bela Krajina region in Slovenia). The central area of Slovene ethnic territory was left over to the ingenuity of sparse groups of the remaining native inhabitants- Wallachians. A typical pair ofbasket­ shaped ear-rings executed in bronze, discovered in two individual gra ves, not ina single one, testified to that period. The grave of a woman over forty years old contained a unique form of such an ear­ ring on the right side ofher head, while another, younger woman Ear-rings, baby's rattles: "Unique and worn out artefacts contained in the graves, typical of the turn of the 6th or beginning of the 7th century, indicated a self-sufficient and iso­ lated community." wore a bad local imitation of the Byzantine rib bed form of such an earring on her left side. Was ita peculiarity of the local garb or merely a simple consequence of modest means? Some finds indi­ cated nothing by themselves, e.g. two carefully polished, pierced frag­ ments of goblets from !ate Antiquity. However, with the additional information of the fragments having been used as baby' s rattles and !aid in the arms of a four-or five-year-old child, avivid picture of dis­ tant grief was revived. The anthropological study by Leben-Seljak pre­ sented the li ves of those people indicating that most of them died at the so-called adultus 11 age (30 to 40 years), and nobody from the tria! pits surpassed the maturus 11 age (50 to 6o years). Badly healed frac­ tures of bones and arthritis at an early stage were discernible from the skeletons, with additional traces of heavy burdens having been carried by women on their heads. Even some family ties could have been discovered indicated by the aquiline form of noses in the case of two men. The deceased were !aid in the sunrise direction, according to Christian tradition, and they were buried in shallow holes with no grave architecture indicated in the above-mentioned report by Pečnik. The question of what was cut through by the forest road addition­ ally incited the protective surveys in the area of the Gorenji Mokronog cas tie (Obernassenfuss in German). The ruins of the former ss Gorenji Mokronog: Archeological Site castle first recorded in written documents as early as n37 are stili dis­ cernible on the wooded crest between the two tributaries of the brook Laknica. It used to be one of the most important castles in the Dolenjska region. When the lower castle was erected in the present Mokronog, the earlier castle was gradually denominated with the ad­ jective Gorenji ('upper')! Protective excavations begun in 1996 partly surveyed the tower in the forecourt of the castle in question. With the support of the Institute of Archaeology of the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovene Academy of Arts and Sciences (zRe sAzu) in "The forecourt was also walled in and fortified with a deep moat to the south. Traces of walls, defence turrets and stone-built castle buildings of unknown purpose were discov­ ered on the eastern and western sides." 1998 and 1999, the settlement area was chronologically and partly functionally defined by means of a series of 78 manual excavations (in an intensive sub-surface survey) and some non-destructive meth­ ods like the execution of a digital model of the relief and the geo­ physical measurements of the area (geoelectrical charting and the use of georadar). The surveys revealed that the prehistoric fort on the top of the crest was the first to come into being. Remnants of the edge of a rampart on the south-eastern and north-eastern sides were stili slightly discernible, while the northern side was probably never in­ cluded due to the steep, almost precipitous slope. The village of Wallachians buried on the hill ofVrajski Breg came into being ona hidden and somewhat more graded north-eastern slope at the turn of the 6th or in the 7th century. It seemed that the village was deserted in the period between the 7th and 9th centuries; wooden houses were at !east partly burned. Four early Mediaeval settlement terraces were entrenched in the crest to the north of the fort. The old Wallachian refuge was thus not entirely forgotten and was again occasionally in­ habited during the dramatic period of H ungarian incursions at the 2 Acknowledgement is due to Andrej Pleterski, who kindly related the infor· mati on ofthe earliest written record of the ca st le to the author. 59 Cultural Routes 2000 Guide to Monuments tum of the 9th and beginning of the roth century. The construction of the castle tower on the top of the crest largely destroyed traces of the earlier settlement. The tower was divided from the level of the forecourt by a moat. The forecourt was also walled in and fortified with a deep moat to the south. Traces of walls, defence turrets and stone-built castle buildings of unknown purpose were discovered on the eastern and western sides. The only partly excavated and pre­ sented archaeological rernnant was the defence tower by the southern entrance to the forecourt. "Th e only partly excavated and presented archaeological remnant was the defence tower by the southern entrance to the forecourt." The sacred area consisted of the church of St. Peter and an ossarium with the chapel of St. Michael. The church basically origi­ nated from the r2th century; a small Romanesque window was pre­ served from that time. Surveys employing georadar indicated the remnants of earlier floor plan structures. A minor archaeological ex­ cavation performed next to the northem side of the church in r998 discovered 34 graves; all the grave holes were indinstinct or dug through, despite very careful excavations. An interesting change in the orientation ofburials was discovered: from the traditional (east­ west) to the subsequent orientation "facing the church", which was to take place at the beginning of the r6th century, in view of the articles in the graves (holy images, coins). In r78o the burial-ground was moved to Trebelno. The earliest phase of the graves was at lea st partly older than the southern wall of the church nave located on one of the graves. The ossarium from the r2th century was located in the steep hill above the church.